defense industry. blue northern virginia, the rest up for grabs. >> color coded to be sure. thank you so much. thanks for watching. martin will be back tomorrow. "hardball" picks things up right now. will the real outsourcer please stand up? let's play "hardball." good evening. leading off tonight, consider the outsource. for about a monte now, mitt romney month now, mitt romney has been taking hits on bain capital and outsourcing. his team has released an ad saying president obama isn't telling the truth. romney says outsourcing came after may of 1999.

this is complicateded, but no matter who's right, this is a fight team obama is happy to have. also, when you think of veterans, you probably think older and conservative. but the obama team now thinks it's got a real shot at winning over veteran, especially younger vets from iraq and afghanistan. plus, what did joe paterno know and when? louis freeh's investigation is out and conclusion the plain. paterno chose to protect jerry sandusky over the children he victimized and richard engel is just back from syria with a chilling account of what he saw in the country. finally, guess where the american's olympics uniforms were made? here's the hint, not in the u.s.a. we begin with mitt romney fighting back against the bain attacks. howard fineman is editorial director for the "huffington post." joan walsh is editor of salon.

today, the romney campaign is out with a new ad accusing obama of lying about romney's role at bain. >> when a president doesn't tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead? the obama outsourcing attacks. misleading, unfair and untrue. there was no evidence that mitt romney shipped jobs overseas. candidate obama lied about hillary clinton. >> so shame on you, barack obama. >> but america expects more from a president ch obama's dishonest campaign. another reason america has lost confidence in barack obama. >> howard, i'm temperatured to tempted to say that would have been an effective ad a week ago. >> i think you're right. the romney campaign, which was so good on offense during the primary season hasn't shown itself to be quick off the mark in terms of defense. the obama campaign attacked. there are questions about what

definitions you want to use. there are definitions about time. the timeline and so on. but the basic attack was well-known and i think in its heart, had a lot to it, the romney campaign had first dismissed it. they tried to brush it off, make fun of it, they tried to counterattack by saying the president sent money overseas, but it's only today more than a week later they're trying to react to a story they originally sent their staff down to the "washington post" to complain about. >> joan, first read had this response, quote, perhaps the biggest problem for team romney is that this ad comes more than a week after the obama camp released its bain outsourcing ad. that's not quite rapid response. also, today, "the new york times" reports on the disappointment of some romney supporters, built a reputation during the republican primaries as tough street fighters, but

now, mr. romney finds himself confronting concern he is not nimble and aggressive enough to withstand the democratic assault against him. and yesterday on fox news, mitt romney was asked about his slow response and said this. >> i of course respond to the attacks that come, but they say in politics, if you're responding, you're losing. >> the part that surprises me is that this was all predictable. newt gingrich, he was slapped down in republican quarters for doing so, but he pursued these bain issue issues. >> i agree except this outsourcing offshore stuff is a little bit new and they seem to be surprised by that. but they've created their own troubles in their response because it seems to me that first, they tried to say they want to kind of defend what he's done. then say well, he is gone when the outsourcing occurred and that is what opened this toor.

did door. we've got multiple sets of disclosure forms now that each tell a different story. one to the sec that could be damaging about exactly when he stepped down, so it's sort of like in their original defense, they've created this new set of questions ab the timeline of his departure, they are really. >> here's joan what you're re r referring to. a report in this morning's "boston globe" about when romney left bain. it follows reporting from david corn, as a matter of fact, mother jones, that suggests romney was still involved in 2002. quote, government documents filed by mitt romney and bain capital say romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control.

documents filed later by bain capital state he remained the firm's stockholder, chairman of the board and president. the romney campaign said the article is inaccurate. they say romney was still the owner, technically, but wasn't involved in any investment decisions and not surprisingly, the obama campaign was quick to jump on the story. in a call with reporters, stephanie cutter levelled a strong charge. >> either mitt romney, through his own words and signature, was m misrepresenting to bain, which is a felony, or to the american people to avoid responsibility for some of the koconsequences his investments and if that's the case, if he was lying to the american people, then that's a real character and trust issue that the american people need to take very seriously.

>> pretty strong words. romney campaign manager called the statement reckless and accused the obama camp of hitting a new low. he called on the president to apologize. as i said, it gets confusing. i think this is a big picture. the president got a disappointing jobs number recently, yet it seems it's romney who's on the defensive. >> there's no question about it and every day that goes by, michael, where the media and i'm talking about most of the media, an the political community, is focused on these kinds of question is one day that same media establishment is not talking about the rather dismal state of the economy. so, on this basis alone, it's a win for tactically for the president and i also think there are other streams of documents and information that may be coming forth that may tell yet another picture of what romney was doing between 1999 and 2002.

the problem romney has is that his identity seemed to change based upon which document he was filling out. don't forget at time, there were also questions about in the later on, 2002, when he ran for governor, whether he was a legal resident and actually at that time, he had an interest in talking about how much he was in massachusetts and how involved he was in businesses in massachusetts. so, i would watch for that as the next turn of the wheel in this story. >> i guess to state the obvious, a reason why this is significant is that the romney campaign would like to establish a definite end date so that bain activities are not subject to criticism in the campaign context. kb toys is one of those that will often become campaign fodder and the question becomes well, did mitt romney having anything to do with it or was he already managing the olympics. >> i think bain is going to wind

up having to answer some questions here, too, because really the question is, what are they representing to the sec? to their clients. we all know that investment company, it really matters who the ceo is, who is making a decisions. how is mitt romney's name and role being used in outreach to clients. there are a lot of questions on the corporate side in terms of how you represent yourself to the sec and then questions for mitt romney on the political side. this story that every day, the new sets of information that they bring out about it, they aren't helping the ining themse it's not going away. >> the romney campaign has drawn support from the fact checking community. i'm refer iring by way of examp of the fact that "the washington post," although in the news pages, came out with that very important outsourcing story, which the romney campaign objected to, wanted a retraction and did not get it, yet it's the same post before that gave four

pinocchios to an obama campaign ad that raised this whole issue and still, they haven't been able to turn this issue around. howard, do you understand what i'm saying? >> i do. i think it's largely for the reason thajoan point eed out. in an effort to nail it down, they have made some assertions about what romney was doing between 1999 and 2002 that are open to question. in an effort to shut down one part of the story, they rather stupidly opened up a whole other one they probably didn't need to do. if they just stuck with jamming p "washington post's" own review devices at "the washington post," they may have had a b better time with this story. but in addition to changing the subject, the strategy is also ultimately to get back to taxes. i think. what they really want to do is

say look, what was mitt romney up to, what business deals was he doing? we need to see more of his tax returns. that's the other part of this they're pressing on. they're trying to create the idea that mitt romney is a guy with a lot to hide about his business life, which is part of the larger narrative they're pushing because he won't tell us what he did with his business and fortune. >> almost swift-boating, meaning go after the asset you perceive your opponent to have. coming up, the investigation into the penn state child abuse scandal is out and it's a damning of head officials including joe paterno, who protected sandusky over the children he preyed upon. ♪

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following eight months of investigations, 340 interviews and 3.5 million documents, louis freeh revealed a devastating look to the jerry sandusky sex abuse scandal. according to the report, joe paterno and other top university officials including graham spanier, gary schultz and tim

curley -- here was judge freeh this morning in announcing his findings. >> our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of sandusky's child victims by the mostenior leaders at penn state. the most powerful men at penn state failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who sandusky vi victimized. mr. spanier, shult, p tern and curley never demonstrated through anchors or words any concern for the safety and well being of sandusky's victims. until after sandusky's arrest. >> diane diamond is a reporter for "the daily beast" where buzz bissinger is a columnist, also talk show host. buzz, when paterno was questioned by the grand jury in

2011 about that shower assault witnessed by mike mcqueary, here's what he was asked. other than the incident, do you know in any way through rumor, direct knowledge of any other inappropriate sexual conduct by sandusky with young boys? paterno's answer. no. i do not know of it. you did mention, i think you said something about a rumor, i don't know, i don't remember and i could not honestly say that i heard a rumor. all right. now, i'm putting on the screen exhibit 2e to judge freeh's report. you're looking at an e-mail from curley to schultz. coach is anxious to know where it stands. connect those two dots, buzz

bissinger. >> michael, as you know, i've been writing about this in the daily beast. i've been saying this for over a year. joe paterno knew everything involving football, but now, we don't have to rant. he knew about the 1998 incident, the first incident involving jerry sandusky. he knew about the 2001 incident involving coach paterno way beyond mcqueary. he got involved in it. he has no legacy. it is clear that paterno wanted to keep this in house and they tried and the president try ied and the vice president tried and the athletic director tried and they didn't want to do damage to the football program and finally, they got caught. >> here's more of freeh's presser this morning explaining what his findings showed about joe paterno's role dating back as early as 1998. >> the evident shows mr. paterno

was made aware of the 1998 invest dwags of sandusky, followeded it closely, but faileded to take action. even though sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for about 30 years and had an office just steps away from mr. paterno. at the very least, mr. paterno could have alerted the entire football staff in order to prevent sandusky from bringing another can child into the latsch building. >> it's what we always suspected, is it not? that a small circle of individuals knew this guy was a bad seed. i still maintain they give him a graceful exit in 1999 when he was in his mid 50s. it was all about protecting the football program. >> i really urge everybody, go to the daily beast. we have this whole report up. take a little bit of time and read it. i'll tell you what, michael, you and i have talked a lot about this case, but i read this today

and said to myself, they're all liars. every one of them lied. not only to themselves and the public and the campus, but they went before a grand jury and they ball faced lied. they knew in 1998 that jerry sandusky had a problem with boys and for 14 years, can i repeat that? 14 years, they let him have his way. not only as a coach with a lot of athletes there at penn state, but bringing in these second mile kids by the dozens. it just turns my stomach. >> and buzz, when you know that these e-mails evidenced paterno's awareness in 1998 and you know that and rewind the clock and say mcqueary comes to the house and a saturday morning, it's just been three years since paterno was in the loop, that's the moment if not in '98, that's the moment that the hammer should have been put down and instead, the response

was i'm not going to react immediately because it's the weekend. i'm sure you remember that. >> of course. the hammer should have been put down in 1998. the hammer was not put down. they went out of their way. forget about abuse of kids. they went out of their way to probably give jerry sandusky the biggest sweetheart retirement deal in the history of penn state. an unprecedented lump sum pension plan. paid for 57 trips. they cared more about this sexual animal than they ever did, ever did about any of these kids and let's face it. joe paterno was a bad man. >> diane, buzz is making reference to the fact i think judge freeh said $168,000. unprecedented payment was made at the time and there was also a land transfer.

. it's not as if he went quietly. could bring all the campus that he desired. they had zero of a definable response. the family of the late joe paterno released a statement today saying paterno didn't know sandusky was a predator. >> oh, stop it. >> and says it can be argued that joe paterno should have gone further. we accept this criticism. at the same time, joe paterno and everyone else knew sandusky had been investigated by authorities who approve ed his adoptions. believed that law enforcement, university leaders and others would properly investigate any issue and proceed adds the facts dictated. major damage control from the paterno family. >> oh, yeah. well, you know, if i was their pr person, i would tell them to

keep their mouth shut. they just need to go quietly to their computer, "the daily beast," read this and they should be ashamed of some of the things they've said. that's remarkable because even as far back as 1995, the biological mother of matt sandusky, who has come out and said he, too, was a victim, matt sandusky's mother in 1995 was screaming and yelling jerry sandusky is trying to steal my son. please, somebody, stop him. i think it's inappropriate relationship. i've spent time in state college and there about. it's a small community. you can't tell me that joe paterno hadn't heard that, too. >> we still haven't heard from lynn abraham. she's investigating the second mile and on a subject i'm going to address at the end of the program tonight, i still want to know why did it take three full years from the time the victim

who came forward who was believed and started this prosecution until the time they put handcuffs on sandusky. i guess my point is there's still much more to come. >> of course. why did it take three years? because of politics. because tom corbett was the attorney general and he was running for governor and he didn't want to alienate the penn state contribution base. we know that. that to me is not speculation. every speculation that concerned people have had about this has come true. joe paterno did not care less that jerry sandusky was a pedophile or a wedge pedophile. joe paterno, all his life, and the penn state grass cared about one thing. that god damned football team. >> thank you. we'll be back after this. [ male announcer ] if you have to take care of legal matters.

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naacp this week. hey, what was with the weird organ music. >> please welcome mitt romney. ♪ >> morning. >> that was the real music they played, but when ever he talked about himself being president, did you see what happened? >> any policy that lifts up and honors the family is going to be good for the country and that must be our goal. as president, i will -- ♪ >> and look who's playing. look, look. ♪ >> back to "hardball." we're just weeks away from the opening ceremony of the summer olympics in london and there's some unexpected buzz about team u.s.a. the team uniforms for the

opening ceremony. appare appare apparently, the uniforms are made in china, not the u.s. some members of congress expressexpress ed their outrage today. >> today, there are 600,000 vacant manufacturing jobs in this country and the olympic committee is outsourcing the mack i guess of the unforms to china? that's not just outrageous. it's plain dumb. >> i'm calling on the decision to be reveersed -- >> i think they should take the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them. if they have to wear nothing but a singlet that says u.s.a. on it painted by hand, that's what they should wear. >> the u.s. olympics committee released a statement saying quote we're proud of our partnership with ralph lauren and excited to watch america's

finest athletes compete. reed and -- could you tell it's an election year? next, bring on the photo shop. colorado republican lang sias is making a run at the state senate after losing in 2010. now, check out the campaign photo from 2010. notice the tea party endorsed paper posted on that sign and here he is in front of the sign. he is using that same picture as a campaign mail er, just like h did in 2010, but with one notable omission. no more nod to the tea party. why? in the last go around, the candidate was in a gop primary. this time, it's a face off with a democrat in a district that's pretty evenly split. finally, jane pitt, the mother of hollywood a-lister, brad pitt, drew some attention last week when she sent a letter to a local newspaper blasting

president obama for supporting gay marriage. her son has a supporter of gay marriage. but now, the plot thickens. who's come out in support of main street pitt? jon voigt. he's the father of angelina jolie, brad pitt's soon to be wife. she's also come out in favor of soon to be marriage. up next, the obama campaign thinks it has a good chance of winning a traditionally conservative group of voters. veteran, especially younger veterans who served in iraq and afghanistan. if you want to follow me on twitter, you just have to learn how to spell smerconish. i can't even say smerconish. at shell, we believe the world needs a broader mix of energies. that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil,

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it was a yo-yo of a day today. the dow down, s&p dropping six and nasdaq lost 22, but man, it was a lot worse earlier in the day. the market's moving up an then down again. inv lowest level in four years in that metric. the billionaire investor warren buffett said earlier on cnbc that u.s. growth is pretty much flat and that the u.s. housing market is slowly improving. merck, a big winner today, gaining more than 4% on its new drug. now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." military veterans tend to lean republican. in 2008, they went for john

mccain by ten points. four years earlier, they gave bush a 16-point edge and polls show that romney retains a strong lead this year. president obama is making a push to win the group over, especially younger veterans of the iraq and afghan wars. his pitch is that he's pushed policies to help vets find jobs like giving tax credits to businesses that hire them. he also brought the troops home from iraq and extended benefits. so, does the president have a shot at making strides with young vets? patrick murphy -- both are iraq war veterans. mayor, why in spite of the poll numbers, do you think there's ground here to be made up by president obama? >> well, this president has done an outstanding job. in his commitment to veterans. as you mentioned, as the tax cuts that he's offered to

incourage businesses to hire veterans, the challenge he made last summer for private sector to hire veterans has resulted in 60,000 jobs for veterans an military families. he's extended the gi bill. historic measures in place where veterans can take advantage of in state college tuition for free. this is a president who understands the commitment that's been made by those in uniform that have come home and the fact we have to make sure that there is a ladder for them when they do get home and there are real results there. i think as veterans learn this president's record, they will be in support of president obama this fall. >> patrick, one thing the president might have going for him, unemployment has been decreasing among vets. stands at 9.5% now. how important will the job issue

be for veterans in particular? >> very important. i think that's why you're seeing a decrease. there's a lot more work to be done and like he said, although he was in the navy and i'm an army guy. >> that's okay. >> when you look at issue like hire our heroes, an initiative that president obama is doing with the chamber of commerce and what mrs. obama and biden are doing. if i could say three quick things on why there's a very good chance president obama will win the veteran's vote. number one, mitt romney is no john mccain. john mccain is an american hero. mitt romney was in france during vietnam. number two, barack obama has been an outstanding commander in chief. as you know, michael, barack obama as a candidate said he will bring bin laden to justice

if he has a chance. he did exactly that. with the help of those navy s.e.a.l.s and said he would bring the troops home from iraq. the largest increase in veterans benefits in the history of our nation. the new gi bill. veterans centers all over our country, two in pennsylvania. >> put i have to ask then, why is he trailing the president by 24 points? >> two things. one, it is traditionally tough tr a democrat to win, but don't mistake the fact that of a younger veteran, they voted for barack obama over john mccain. and mitt romney's not john mccain. >> you think it's a generational issue. >> there's no doubt, michael, but do not, do not discount the

fact that as he said, the more these veterans look at what the commander in chief, barack obama, has done for them, the more they will continue to go in his column and vote for him this november. >> how does the don't ask don't tell position of the president play in military quarters? help or hurt him? >> i think it helps. i think that people that serve this country in uniform understand fairness. they understand everyone's commitment to serve, no matter who they are. i think it's a huge plus and i want to add to what my friend and colleague said, patrick, look, you have to look at the record. mitt romney in massachusetts, i'm a massachusetts native. attempted to decrease veterans benefits by 11%. when he was governor. he did not in the last few month, make a commitment to continue the program. in fact, he proposed eliminating.

we've decreased homelessness by 12%. >> i get it. both of you think the president's got a record that ought to distinguish him with vets. allow me to make a tough transition. i want to make a sharp turn to something that doesn't have anything to do with politics. suicides in the military. the time talks about the alarming trend, more u.s. army personnel have died by suicide. and while it levelled off in 2010 and 2011, it is soared this year. it has passed road accidents as the leading cause of death among troops. the army's been keeping statistics only since is early 80s. the current numbers constitute a crisis. what took me by surprise,

one-third of suicides among troops have never deployed. you would think this is because individuals are deployed four or five times. a third of them are from troops never deployed. what's going on? >> there's such an incredible burden on our heroes serving our country. if anyone's watching, they got to read that cover story in "time" magazine. it will break your heart. when you hear the story of someone like ian morrison, an apache pilot who went six times and was turn eed away for help,y heart goes out to his wife, rebecca. when our family goes to bed tonight and say our prayer, we are going to be praying for her an every one of these hero's families. every 80 minutes, a veteran in

america commits suicide. there is so much more we need to do. >> what drives this? what's the cause from your perspective? >> well, i think that clearly, it's a tragedy. as a mayor, i see veterans that come in my door every day. i see what they've gone through, some of them, and not really having a safety net to catch them before they fall through the cracks. at the local level, we have to find an innovative ways to reach out to veterans of all wars. patrick noted that the extended deployments, those that carry the burden, the uniform, are so great right now. we also see that the president addressed the processing of benefits in adding 2,300 processors at the va, which is very important, that helped people get benefits. >> we clearly need --

>> but we've got -- >> thank you both for your service. up next, richard engel just back from covering the uprising in syria. can anything be done to stop the violence? this is "hardball." the place for politics. an 550 m, you'll inevitably find yourself on a desolate highway in your jeep grand cherokee. and when you do, you'll be grateful for the adaptive cruise control that automatically adjusts your speed when approaching slower traffic. and for the blind spot monitoring that helps remind you that the highway might not be as desolate... ...as you thought. ♪

new poll numbers from some key senate races and for that, we check the "hardball" scoreboa

scoreboard. in virginia, tim cain has a lead over george allen. in wisconsin, former governor tommy thompson leads tammy baldwin. that's for the seat for retiring democratic senator herb cole and in maine, king still leads the pack in a new critical insights poll. king with a whopping 28-point lead over the republican and democrat in the race. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink?

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16 months of fighting has left syria war torn. s syrians asking why doesn't the world care? conservative estimates by reuters say 13,000 armed and unarmed opponents of assad have been kill eed along with 4300 security forces. richard engel recently returned from syria where he witnessed the aftermath of a massacre that left 127 dead. in a rare interview, he asked two cousins who had defected from the syrian army what happened when syrian troops rolled into town. >> they started firing on us with all kinds of weapons. >> firing from above, i asked. >> yes, from above. we are surrounded from every side. there was no escape. >> about 15 people give themselves up. the troops tied their hands, lined them up and killed them.

>> this cell phone video shows bodies on the floor. some appear to be bound, shot excuse style. they say syrian troops climbed down into the valley to finish off any survivors. >> richard now. richard, thank you for being here. how common are massacres like that which you've just reported on? >> well, i can give you the latest example. another massacre has reportedly happened today according to syrian activists. 100 people were killed around hama when a village in the hama area was attacked by artillery shells and the shabiha is a government backed militia entered this village and started killing people. that was a massacre just today of 100. unfortunately massacres in syria are not that uncommon. the story tonight is something that is fairly uncommon.

that is to be able to document a massacre. not many journalists are in syria. we went to the massacre site. we spoke with those two people you saw on camera. they were the only two survivors who are still in syria of that massacre of 127 men and boys. >> i saw your recent nightly report and took note of the rudimentary nature of the. s being used by the rebels. >> the rebels have very little. they are fighting against an organized army. an organized army that is getting fractured by the day, i must add, with some ak-47s, some rpg, homemade explosives. this is not like what happened in libya where there was a massive nato intervention. here the rebels are cut off and trying to fend for themselves. you see people changing batteries to use for homemade bombs blowing up government vehicles. so they are trying to do it themselves. >> is the momentum on the side

of the rebels? >> i think it is. and that is what's new. and that is what we're going to be talking about tonight again on "rock center." for the first time in this 16-month battle they have territory. they have a lot of will and that will combine with a space on the ground that they can control, give them momentum, and i think could be at a tipping point in this conflict. >> what is the current u.s. role in syria? >> there really isn't one. the u.s. is trying to get russia -- primarily russia and to a degree china to stop putti putting obstacles in the way. but on the ground the u.s. is not doing very much at all. as the rebels are communicating with each other, there's no real advisers. maybe there's some cia on the ground, but u.s. role is mostly

political at this stage. >> we have just a minute left. i was surprised in reading a "news week" piece talking about the life outside versus life -- >> life in damascus. >> pardon me. they're parting like 1980-who knows what? >> damascus is a bubble now. the cities are still in assad's hand. particularly damascus, the state of power. but the countryside is not. and the spaces in between syrian army check points are not in government hands. the ship is going down in ae capital and on the bridge they are still celebrating and having lavish parties. >> it's nice to have you here. thank you. >> thanks. >> we'll be watching your reports tonight on nbc nightly news and "rock center." when we return, let me finish with why it took so long to finally catch jerry sandusky once and for all. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. want my recipe for healthier hair color?

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let me finish tonight with this. now that louis freeh has delivered on sandusky sandusky, it's time for fact finding. published reports most notably at the patriot news where sara ganuh won a pulitzer raised some

troubling questions. the case that finally brought down sandusky was first purported by a high school student. recused himself from handling the case due to a potential conflict. it was referred to the state attorney general's office. then headed by tom corbett who was at the time running for governor of pennsylvania. the ag's office was then pursuing bonus gate. that was an investigation of state municipal corruption and that took significant resources. there was only one investigator assigned to the a case the first year. it took that investigation a year to figure out that sandusky had been the subject of a 1998 probe for similar behavior. and it took a year to learn that sandusky had penned an oddly titled manuscript titled "touched." a year? a google search of the name jerry sandusky would have revealed the book in seconds. this is significant. ultimately it was a road map for finding victims.

many of whom were written about in the book and pictured in the book. when you have a suspected pedophile on the street, you need to move with all possible speed so as to protect children from assault. this case took three years to bring to conclusion from when the high school boy first made his report to when sandusky was arrested. critics have suggested that then-attorney general corbett drew out the investigation until after his successful gubernatorial campaign ended. both corbett and frank noonan reject those claims. saying they proceeded cautiously to uncover enough evidence to corroborate victim one's claims. that evidence finally came in early 2011 after corbett was sworn in as governor and the investigative team dealing with the case grew from one to eight. finally. so with judge freeh having analyzed the response by penn state to sandusky, there is